I’m back! Well, I was never away. Of course the usual excuses follow: school, work, husband returning from Iraq, moving, etc. Although I’ve been away I haven’t stopped living or loving life! I was excited to get my report that I had over 1,500 views on my blog in December! In January my husband, Todd, decided he wanted to do a detox/liver/colon cleanse with me. He made the decision to eat as healthy as possible along with the cleanse. Really??? Yes. This came from an all-american he-man-woman-hating cheese-burger beer guzzling(sometimes) normal young army guy. At this announcement I was both nervous and excited. Pictures of food spewing out of his mouth, faces or comments about the food, or him losing so much weight he looked like he came from a concentration camp ran through my head. At the same time of course I want the love of my life to experience his optimal healthy body. After everything settled down in January we began our “Todd eats mostly raw and healthy stuff a lot for at least 30 days”. Too long of a title? The first few days were shaky. I was working and Todd ran in and asked if a vanilla milkshake was raw. He used his big blue puppy dog eyes and explained he was REALLY craving one. But alas, as a health food enthusiast, I could not succumb to such trickery. I did however make him a shake at home as soon as I got the chance. Not your McDonalds hydrogenated-oil, high fructose corn syrup, fractioned milk goo, but delicious nonetheless.

I Need a Vanilla Milkshake! recipe:

1 frozen banana

1/2 scoop raw protein powder or Vega Shake and Go smoothie

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon raw agave nectar or honey or 1 teaspoon stevia powder

1 cup almond milk (creamier) or water

Ice as needed

Directions:

Throw everything in the blender as fast as possible. Add ice as needed and according to textural desire(nice phrase!) Then quickly put it in a cup and savor to kick that milkshake craving in the a**!

We live a very busy lifestyle with friends, family, school, and work. We run into a variety of scenarios, many of which involve food. Wait, that’s every American. Hmm. So because we happen to be normal people we also happen to be imperfect. Neither of us aspire to be perfect, we just try to do our best at that moment, on that day, in that year. We don’t live by rules or dogmatic thinking, and we certainly don’t push our goals onto other people. So, we do enjoy the occasional drink, steak (especially Todd), and sushi. Because of Todd’s high protein needs we found it easiest for him to still incorporate meat into his diet. There are many recipes however that require no cow’s that he likes quite a bit.

Todd’s Tacos.He calls them tacos…there not…there burritos more or less….and he scares people when he says “Oh you should come over and try our raw tacos!” Response”Whaaaat? Raw taco meat???” Pictures of Todd biting into bloody, ground up, hamburger meat are running through there head, I’m sure. (Sorry to be so graphic?) Anyways, heres the recipe:

Taco Meat:

1 cup raw soaked walnuts (no other nut will do…okay maybe…but it won’t be as good.)

With the texture of taco meat in mind process all ingredients in food processor. You don’t want it too crunchy or too mushy. Carefully add the water, as you don’t want too much. Taste as you go along to get the desired flavor. Feel free to add a variety of spices.

Raw Cheddar Cheese Directions:

Blend everything together. The amount of water will depend on the thickness or thinness of cheese desired.

Raw Sour Cream:Process everything. It gives that bite. It might not taste like sour cream by itself, but when combined with other flavors it provides that sour your looking for. You might want to add more or less vinegar.

Tomatillo Salsa Directions:

Sometimes I chop it all up by hand, sometimes I use a food processor. It depends on how lazy I am or am not feeling, or if I just want a variety of “chop” sizes. I’ve been none to add red bell pepper to the mix as well.

Todd likes it this way:Take one Food for Life Ezekiel Tortilla (made with sprouted grains and cooked at a low temperature)Spread a good amount of cheese. Follow with taco meat. Add spinach or lettuce and salsa. Top with sour cream. Fold it up into a burrito, but refuse to call it a BURRITO and always persistently and determinately refer to it as a TACO.I enjoy it this way, or if I’m wanting something light (and grain-less) it’s delicious as a “taco salad”. Just sprinkle everything atop of bed of spinach or lettuce of choice. Yum.

Raw Taco Salad

I have so many more recipes too share! Let me know if you have any special requests or questions! I might answer. ; ) Renee

I was recently at a grocery store and was told by an acquaintance to buy the corn because it was on sale. When I pointed out it wasn’t organic she made a face. So then I mentioned if it’s not organic it’s GMO corn. She made another face. I said “genetically modified organisms” to clarify. She made another face and declared “well I’ve been eating it my whole life and I’m fine!” and trotted away. Had I the chance…and attitude…I would have said “no, no you haven’t had it your whole life.” GMOs are as recent as the 80s and only began to widely be used in the mid 90s.

What are GMO’s? GMO stands for genetically modified organisms(eeew sounds sciency). Basically it’s science’s way of making what we already eat better. Better for who? Better in what way? Well for one thing to keep more bugs away GMO crops are used by farmers. The two most popular GMO crops are corn and soy. So what’s wrong with that? Well in several studies when these foods were fed to mice and cows the animals suffered disease. Namely liver and kidney disease. Infertility is another potential side effect. Impotence another possible effect, that’s right guys, IMPOTENCE. Even if studies had not been done, I prefer to be a guinea pig while the verdict is out. There are plenty of hungry and eager Americans raising their hand to volunteer their health. I know it’s not possible for many people to eat 100% organic 100% of the time…I haven’t reached that ability yet. But the least we can do, once educated is avoid food that comes close to not being….well food. If you read more about GMO’s you’ll learn they can get a gene from anywhere and insert it into anything. Tomatoes with pig genes anyone???

I suggest you read up on it on your own, so you know your stance. I heard the word GMO thrown around for a long time and didn’t really associate much with it. Then I watched this:

It doesn’t have a lot of frills, very “textbooky” about the way it explains the history of GMOs. After watching this even if I didn’t care about GMOs or my health, I wouldn’t want to support Monsanto. A huge, dirty, and conniving company.

Let’s celebrate the fact that we still have access to organic non-gmo corn with a recipe. Of course you can enjoy corn fresh off the cob, which is what we did at my cousin’s organic farm. As you can see I’m quite serious about the whole operation. I smiled once I bit into it. : ) Yuuum.

2c corn nibs (I thawed frozen corn, but you could just cut directly off the cob too)
1 small zucchini (~6″ – the zucchinis at loblaws are so tiny right now!)
1 jalapeno pepper (small, de-seeded)
2 cloves garlic, derooted
1/4tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (you can leave this out if you don’t want it to be too spicy.)
1/4c flax, ground

Preparation:

Throw everything but flax in a food processor, process until smooth-ish. Add flax and either mix in food processor or by hand if you’re feeling ambitious (I wasn’t).

Cover dehydrator trays with paraflex sheets and spread the corn chip batter evenly with a spoon. Dehydrate at 105 F for 1.5-2 hours, turn over onto mesh trays. Use a knife to score the shape of the chips and continue dehydrating overnight. Store in airtight containers.

NOTE: Makes two trays. I made my chips super thin, under a clearly misguided understanding of how thick corn chips are. And it barely made two trays in my dehydrator. So, you may want to increase the ingredients and make them a bit thicker, especially if you’re going to do a nacho plate thing and pile stuff on top of them. Mmmm nachos….

Ah, today the weather is so nice. It makes my little inner hippie heart want to throw on a yellow dress and dance in the daffodils. But alas, I was stuck inside writing a paper. : P Anyways, a couple of weeks ago I held my first raw food potluck. Lovely people and lovely food. I promised to put up some pictures of the delicious food, along with some recipes. First, I made lasagna, which I’ve already posted the recipe for. This time though, I did the cheese a little bit different, so here it is:

FOR ZUCCHINI STRIPS
2 long and thick zucchini , peeled, and sliced into thin, wide strips with a peeler or mandoline
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 dash celtic salt
FOR THE MUSHROOMS
any olive oil left from the zucchini mix, and more if needed
nama shoyu
1 cup portabella mushroom caps, sliced into thin, wide and long slices
OTHER INGREDIENTS
2 big tomato, sliced into thin, wide slices
1 cup spinach, coated very lightly in any of the extra marinade from the mushrooms and chopped

Preparation:

1. To make the cashew cheez:
-Process the soaked cashews, lemon juice, lemon zest, nutritional yeast, celtic sea salt, onion, and herbs. The measurements are just approximate, so taste as you go, it should taste yummy like ravioli cheese. It should have a ricotta-cheesey texture, so add more lemon juice or water if needed.
2. To make the zucchini layers, coat the thin and wide zucchini strips with the olive oil and salt so they are coated but NOT dripping. Set aside, and reserve any extra olive oil and salt mix you have left for the mushrooms.
3. To make the mushrooms, coat the thinly sliced portabella caps in the EVOO and nama shoyu mixture, again so they are coated but NOT dripping.
4. Coat the baby spinach VERY lightly in any of the leftover marinade from the mushrooms.
5.TIME TO ASSEMBLE!! Arrange the layers like so: zucchini (slightly overlapping), cheez, tomato slices, mushrooms, spinach, and repeat. do this so its as tall as you like, and coat the top layer of zucchini with some more cheez and tomato.
6. Dehydrate at 130 degrees for an hour (this will not destroy enzymes because of the moisture content of the food at this stage), and then at 110-115 for another half hour to an hoour or so.
7. ENJOY!!!!

Soak Flax seeds in a pint glass filed with water for 30 minutes before using.

While they’re soaking, process the Onions (quartered) in your Food Processor (FP) with the finest (smallest) slicing blade. (not the chopping/normal ‘S’ blade). Should make long thin strips/slices of onions. (Julienne) Set aside in very, very large bowl.

Change your FP blade to the finest grating blade you have and process the Carrots. Add to the bowl with the sliced Onions.

If soak time has passed. Put soaked Flax Seeds and the soak Water into your Blender. Refill the pint glass with water and add that water to blender also. Blend for just a bit, it will become a thick gel/cream with a few whole flax seeds and bits of all sizes.

Pour Flax cream blend into bowl with Onions and Carrots. Add the Olive Oil and the Salt. Stir very well with large spoon. Allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. While waiting cover 3 Excalibur dehydrator trays with cling film or use teflex sheets.

Divide your mixture evenly between the 3 trays and spread out evenly on each one, just less than a half inch thick. Place into Dehydrator and run until dried well on top. Flip onto normal uncovered trays and continue to dehydrate until almost crispy. It’s best to cut it about two hours after you flip it before it gets too crispy.

As an option, try stopping one tray before it dries all the way and leave those squares more flexible.

These cookies are just…yuuum. Decadent? Yes. Rich? Yes. A little on the heavy side? Yes. Overindulgent? Yes. Time consuming? Yes. Worth it? Yes! So I looked over a couple of different raw “samoa” recipes and kind of combined them. Here’s what happened:

For the cookie:

1 cup of almonds or cashews ground into a meal ( I used a coffee grinder, if you use cashews the cookie will turn out much softer, but will still be delicious)

1 cup of raisins or date, soaked

1 cup of shredded coconut, ground into a meal (I used a coffee grinder)

So you’ll want to start with the cookie first, because it takes the longest.

The Cookie Directions:

Combine almond meal and coconut in a food processor. Add maple syrup, dates, vanilla and sea salt, and process until it forms a ball of dough.

Flatten the dough into a sheet and cut out cookie-sized circles. To maintain authenticity, you can also cut a smaller circle out of the middle to make its familiar donut-like shape (donuts? Yum! I have such a sweet-tooth. Now, I’m getting off topic). OR you can take small pieces of doll, roll into a “snake” and the join the two ends together to form a circle. Flatten gently.

“Bake” the cookies in the dehydrator, flipping once, until crisp (I left mine in there for almost 24 hours).

The “Raw Condensed Milk” Directions:

Soak the flaxseed in the water overnight.

Blend at high speed in the blender until the mixture is ‘fluffy’ and frothy. Very, very slowly add the agave nectar. Add the sea salt, coconut, and vanilla and continue to blend until mixture is very smooth and creamy looking.

Pour mixture into a shallow dish and place in the dehydrator.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees for at least three hours, or until desired consistency is reached.

Use in recipes or continue to dehydrate to make ‘dulce de leche’

The Topping, Part II Directions:

Stir the dried coconut into the “raw condensed milk”.

Chocolate Directions:

Stir together coconut oil, cacao, and agave until smooth and melted.

Putting it all together Directions(Time for all these scrumptious desserts to get to know each other):

First, take the cookie and dip the bottom into the Chocolate dip. Set cookies, bottom side up into the freezer for a few minutes. The chocolate should become solid quickly.

Remove the cookies from the freezer and top each cookie generously with the coconut topping.

Drizzle remaining chocolate dip over coconut topping.

Place in freezer or fridge. Keep in until ready to serve. Yum!

Some other delicious dishes we had at the raw food potluck:

Raw Wraps with a “chicken” salad and veggies. So good!

A lovely and refreshing Cucumber and Radish Dip

There were deliciiiiiious Popsicles and “fudgesicles”, but I guess we were all in such a hurry to eat them I didn’t get a picture!

I still have a lot more recipes to share.

My sister is on her 7th day of following a 100% raw diet. She said so far, it hasn’t been as hard as she thought at all. We talked a little bit about “detoxing” which can be anything from a headache, to stomach ache. Maybe I’ll touch on that in a post some time. This usually only last about a week at the most. She hasn’t had any real symptoms so far. : D

So my sister has decided to “go raw” for at least 30 days. As she’s started out she’s had plenty of questions for me. Some things we talked about today:

Milk: Well by the time the milk comes from the lovely fat cow that has been given antibiotics, hormones to increase milk productions, and fed food with pesticides, the milk itself has been processed to remove any bad bacteria. Unfortunately this process also removes the enzymes and good bacteria present in the milk. Even if you buy organic milk from the grocery store you would not be getting the same milk the calf lives from. If you’re going to drink milk, I would definitely drink the raw version, just make sure to know the source you’re getting it from. The reason laws were passed to pasteurize milk in the first place was because of “beat-you-down” bad bacteria like e. coli and salmonella. BUT HOW WILL I GET CALCIUM??? Some high raw vegan sources of calcium include: Sesame seeds or tahini (sesame seed butter), flax seeds, almonds or almond butter, raw soybeans, dandelion greens, brazil nuts, and chia seeds. With these foods you’ll be getting lots of other nutrients as well. Plus, most of them are alkalizing so your body want have to rob from your bones in order to balance your pH levels. : P

Run through a small mesh strainer OR a nut milk bag. The liquid is the milk- you can sweeten it if you like, add it to smoothies, and raw cacao powder to it. The “pulp” that’s left over can be used for “pates” or cookies, or dehydrated and ground into a meal or flour.

Sprouts? What are they? Why sprout? What can you sprout?

Basically sprouts are a seed, nut or grain in a certain stage of its growth period. And you decide to interrupt that stage….by chomping into it. Meanie. We sprout because it releases enzymes, nutrients, and vitamins. The little guys are high in protein too. Some of my favorite things to sprout are mung beans and lentils. These also happen to be two of the easiest. Go here for directions on how to sprout lentils. http://www.sproutpeople.com/seed/print/lentils.html super easy and the site has plenty of info on sprouting. It’s not really necessary to buy a bunch of gadgets for sprouting, a mason jar should do the trick. What to do with your sprouts? Well, depending on what you sprouted you might want to throw them on top of a salad, in a lettuce “wrap”, in a raw sandwich, in some raw soup, or whatever else you feel like!

Another point to make while talking about sprouting is soaking. If you’re not sprouting your nuts and seeds, it’s best to at least soak them for 2 or more hours. This allows enzyme inhibitors (things keeping you from digesting that nut or seed easily) to be released from the nut. Just remember: “Soaking the nut is better for the gut.” <—- Ok that’s a ridiculous line.

My sister also brought up the question: How do you eat sushi? It has rice on it so it’s not raw. Weeeell, as ridiculous as it may seem, if my only option is a sushi roll (maki)….I pick off the rice. Of course I could always just order sashimi. Bottom line is, I really don’t eat sushi that often, and when I do I order it with raw cucumber and avocado and remove all the rice. I actually removed the rice BEFORE eating a high raw food diet simply because it’s so starchy.

What’s xylitol? Is it raw? Xylitol is the alien captain come from Zeebus to bring peace to all earthly beings. K not really. It is a sweetener sourced from fruit. It’s not raw, it has to go through a long and treacherous process to get to us at the health food store, in the sugar-free gum, and the “healthy” ice cream at the grocery store. It’s sweeter than sugar and contains sugar alcohols, so it doesn’t raise blood sugar levels as quickly. Other than that, it has no real nutritive value. It does have calories, but less than table sugar.

What’s stevia? Stevia is a green plant that looks like this guy:

It’s waaaaaaaaaaay sweeter than sugar. You can literally take a pieces of the leaf and start chewing it. It’s very sweet….I know because I recently acquired a stevia plant and this is the first thing I did. Just to make sure it was true. : P So in it’s purest form you would take the stevia leaves and grind them up. I think once mine starts growing I will dehyrdate the leaves at a low temp and then grind them up into a powder. Yes this will mean there is a green tint to anything I make that’s sweet and uses stevia. Shrug. At the moment I’ve been using white stevia in small quantities. It’s not raw, but it only takes a very small amount to sweeten something. The best part is it’ s zero calories and zero impact on blood sugar. High five mister stevia, high five.

And last but not least my sister asked about olive oil. Is it raw? Yes you CAN buy it raw, but it’s not easily available. Fats and oils are touchy subjects for some raw foodies. The point of a raw food diet, to me, is to incorporate as many healthy living foods into my diet as possible. Do I shutter from using a tablespoon of olive oil or coconut oil in a recipe? No. Should someone else avoid it? If they feel that’s best for them then of course! We each have to learn what works for us to be the healthiest and happiest.

I’m so excited today, I got flyers printed out for the first raw food potluck I’m holding! It’s going to be great to get to share my passion with other people in the area. I was reminded of the passion people have for raw food while working at the health food store the other day. A woman came in from out of state. She had already been in town for several days. She explained to me she didn’t know our store existed and so she had been living on lifeless food for the last week. When I pointed out her favorite raw snack her eyes lit up and she thanked me. Then, when she spotted the Raw Kombucha in our fridge she began to jump up and down and dance about with more enthusiasm than a kid at their birthday party. It was great to experience someone else’s joy over healthful foods.
So about one of my favorite subjects: Chia Seeds! Yes, the same seeds from chia pets (Chi-Chi-Chiaaaa!). These little seeds contain an important essential fatty acid- omega-3. EFA’s are important for heart health, skin health, immune health…basically they’re a big deal for your body. It seems the most popular form of getting omega-3 is from fish oils. However, chia seeds provide a raw source of the important omega-3 ALA. They are also high in fiber, protein, and low in fat. They provide iron and magnesium. They are virtually tasteless and are great to add to smoothies, raw cookies, or over salad. Unlike flax seeds chia seed’s good fat is on the outside, so they become gelly if soaked in liquid. Doing this forms a sort of chia pudding. Try this Chocolate Chia Shake:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/2 tablespoon raw cacao powder (or 1 tablespoon depending on the chocolate power you want to unleash)
1 cup ice
Raw sweetener to taste (agave, date syrup, honey, etc. I used a 1/2 tsp stevia.)

Preparation:
Let the chia seeds and water get to know each other by letting them sit in your blender for a few minutes while you get everything else together. This will make a gelly consistency. Throw everything in the blender and blend for a minute or so. You might want to add more water to get everything going. If you want it really chocolaty add more cacao powder. Enjoy!
*You could always use raw nut milk in place of the water, that would be double yum!!!

You can make a tapioca like pudding by covering two tablespoons of chia seeds in raw nut milk. Allow them to sit for a while. Add in a raw sweetener such as agave syrup. You can top with fruits such as berries, nuts, or whatever you like!
Enjoy today!
Renee

Many people have now seen Super Size Me. It’s a documentary that exposes how crappy fast food is for us and what horrible things it’s doing to our bodies. Super Size Me is great for telling us what NOT to do. I just watched Food Matters-. It features many leading Doctors, nutritionists, and experts advising us on what we SHOULD be doing. It goes into depth about why many doctors don’t focus on nutrition and the profits to be made from NOT curing cancer. If these two films don’t make you want to change at least some of your diet, I don’t know what will. You can purchase Food Matters athttp://www.foodmatters.tv/_webapp/Movie_Store Both films are availalbe for rent at http://www.netflix.com/

I’ve been eating “mostly” raw for about five months now. My diet consists of uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, the occasional raw food bar, and sometimes raw sushi. So, because of the sushi, I am NOT 100% vegan. While some people go mostly vegetarian to “save the planet” I easily admit my motives are much more selfish. I want to live the best, longest, and healthiest life possible. I decided to give the raw food diet a try after experiencing the passion of a friend who has been mostly raw for several years. She brought me delicious gourmet raw food and always had some new recipe to share. After seeing her enthusiasm I began researching the raw food diet. Since I’m in school to be a nutritionist my main concerns were avoiding any deficiencies. I had questions like: How is raw food better than cooked food? How will I get enough protein? How will I get B-12? How will I get iron? How will I get omega-3 fatty acids? And the BIGGEST question of all (drum roll please)- Won’t I feel deprived and bored with only raw food?????

I’ll posts the answers to these basic questions daily. For right now the answer to the last question is NO. The easy solution is to keep a lot of variety available to yourself. Try different fruits and rotate different vegetables every week. Make raw gourmet recipes if you like to cook. They’re are so many raw food snacks and food bars now available- even chocolate! A great website is http://rawfoodnaturals.com/ They have all sorts of delicious goodies to help you make the transition to eating raw.

First tip: Try just making breakfast raw. If you don’t already eat breakfast…great! You’ll having nothing to miss and only something to gain. Have an apple or other piece of fruit on your way to work. Or graduate to a DELICIOUS green smoothie. I enjoy one almost every day. Don’t be afraid of the greens-I was. After adding the fruit you can’t taste it. Don’t be afraid of the color either. You can be brave. ; ) Be a warrior of chance and give it a try. Here’s the recipe- all you need is a basic blender.

1 cup of water

1 cup of spinach or kale (or other green, you just don’t want it to be too strong)

1 piece of fruit such as apple, pear, peach, or banana

1 other piece of fruit

1 handful of frozen fruit- I like strawberries, blueberries, or blackberries

2 tablespoons chia seeds

Raw sweetener- optional

Directions:

Chop up the raw fruit. Throw everything in the blender. Puree on high speed for about 40-60 seconds. ENJOY!!!

You don’t have to use chia seeds if you don’t have them available. Just try the basic recipe first.

I’m off to write two essays! Yippee! Enjoy your day!

~Renee~

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